Trucker’s body found in river leaves investigators few clues

| Friday, June 08, 2007

Sheriff’s officials in Elmore County, ID, hope the trucking community can help them determine how one trucker died last month.

The body of Dewey Lee, 42, of Rawlings WY, was found on May 27 in the Snake River in Elmore County, ID, just miles east of Boise. Investigators told Land Line Magazine they believe his body had been in the river for a week or two.

Elmore County, ID, Sheriff’s Sergeant Laytreda Schultz told Land Line Thursday, June 7, that her investigation had no leads, even after multiple television and newspaper outlets featured stories about Lee’s death.

Suicide, foul play or natural causes are all plausible causes of Lee’s death, Schultz said.

“Right now anything’s possible,” she said. “We have not determined whether there has been foul play.”

Schultz asked that anyone who may have seen or spoken to Lee around May 11 contact the Elmore County Sheriff’s Department at (208) 587-2121.

Lee’s body was found, clad only in a pair of jeans, several miles from where investigators later found his maroon Peterbilt near Interstate 84.

Lee was a company driver for Triple L Transport of Wendell, ID, Schultz said, and was hauling lumber on a flatbed trailer east on I-84 when he went missing. Schultz said Lee was last seen having lunch in nearby Mountain Home, ID, on May 11.

Local authorities face more challenges when pinpointing timelines for truck drivers and other missing persons from out of town, Schultz said.

“He could be in New Mexico one day and Idaho another day,” Schultz said. “You don’t know – that can make it difficult.”